We Need To Talk About The 2024 Copa América
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- The Copa América is the oldest still-running continental football tournament in the world, but whilst it's first 44 editions, spanning almost 100 years, were hosted in South America, two of the last four Copas have been hosted by the United States of America.
The 2024 Copa América, like the Copa América Centenario in 2016, isn't just being hosted by the United States, but also features six CONCACAF national teams, alongside the ten from CONMEBOL.
It's a strange, but revealing, dynamic, which speaks to the way in which football is changing - and so, in this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at the slightly unusual 2024 Copa América, why it is controversial, and what it tells us about the direction in which football - or soccer - is heading.
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You enter to watch a copa America video and then you find yourself getting educated about the Ecuadorian economy, thanks Alfie
Classic alfie W
Why love football... and this channel haha
And then there’s still people who say “keep politics out of football” when this channel is full of examples of how politics is ingrained in football and sports. Alfie does amazing job of using it to give important background context.
Thanks just saved myself 24 mins
@@DrIllinois007 nah it's a great video tho
I think Conmebol and CONCACAF should agree to scrap the gold cup and make it a true copa America. North and South America
Agreed.
You may very well be heading in that direction.
Yes please!
I’d prefer that tbh. The top six from CONCACAF are competitive with the CONMEBOL teams. Even more so when you consider Suriname, Martinique, Guadeloupe & Jamaica can call up lots of European born players.
Same
In South America, the word "America" usually refers to the entire Americas, so Copa America is a suitable name for a competition that includes the USA and Mexico as well as the CONMEBOL members
In south America we don't want this awful reunion, point.
@@RsgNoise change that "we" for "i"
@@RsgNoise why not? I'm Brazilian btw so I do have a dog in the fight
@@trapitao1210exactly, let underog nations have a chance to compete against the top dogs, thats what football is all about
@@RsgNoiseim colombian and honestly i would much rather the cup feature north american and south american teams. itll make it a true copa “america”. i am aware concacaf teams are weaker but you cant just rule out the possibility of an upset, especially knowing how inconsistent conmenol teams tend to be
Rooting hard for Colombia to win the “Copper America”
Guess what material the trophy is made out off
COPRA AMERICA 🙂
La Copa Ramérica
Do you always root hard?!
@@robertmusil1107not copper
To be fair, Mexico and the US are still in America. Qatar on the other hand...
And Japan 😂
It's like us (Australia) getting invited to Eurovision 🤦♂️🤦♂️
The Copa America is organized by conmebol, concacaf has its equivalent called Gold Cup/Copa de Oro. Hosting the copa america in USA is like hosting the Euros Asia. And i dont know if the Euro has guest teams at all.
Japan, Australia, Quatar and others are invited to play as guests.
@@gabrielv1856they’re not comparable. CONMEBOL only has 10 teams. I don’t see why having CONCACAF teams in Copa America is such a crazy idea.
Is not crazy. It is just weird @@Not_Sal
it seems like more people outside the americas have a problem with this tournament than people actually living here
Ever since Messi won it
That’s how u know it was right thing to do . Europeans are upset because they know how much it can change the landscape of the sport
@@King_Cosmic865what? In what way would Canada playing in the Copa America change the landscape of the sport lmfao
@@buzz5020because the US is the most marketable and profitable nations in the world. Just look up the top 10 most profitable leagues in the world. Anyone with common sense knows that and with proper infrastructures and profits, it can attract a large enough audience to compete with the Euros
@@King_Cosmic865 care to explain how lmao
“Like the African cup of nations hosted by Austria” I don’t think it’s the same scenario as it’s literally called “copa America” which makes sense because it’s all American countries
Not really. It’s just serendipity that the name fits here.
@@jamescook9125 North America has Latin American countries which makes the whole American continent tight knit unlike Africa and Europe for example they have nothing in common
@@jamescook9125No he’s right in addition, a huge difference is that there are many from the South American countries here in North America. Something Nigeria would not be able to say regarding European ethnicities, so it’s really not the same actually…But you applaud the effort
No, listen japan and Australia
As someone from South America, one of the reasons I think the Euros is more appealing to a broader audience is that they have a lot of teams playing in it. Copa America is just as high quality as the Euros in my opinion, but with Conmebol only having 10 countries in total as a confederation, it feels like a much smaller tournament in comparisson. It doesn't matter how much you hype up the Confederations Cup for example, even though it was composed of the winners of the 6 continental champions around the world, it always felt less important, appealing and prestigious than winning whatever continental cup your confederation holds every 4 years instead.
This is why they traditionally invite 2 non-Conmebol teams, most of the time being Concacaf teams, and I REALLY wouldn't mind if they scrapped the Gold Cup from Concacaf and instead Conmebol and Concacaf held a joint Copa America every 4 years, specially considering Concacaf has 41 member nations. It's good to remember that Concacaf was born after the North and Central american confederations joined together in 1961.
It'd make it a much bigger tournament and more appealing in my opinion, and it could help level the playing field between Concacaf and Conmebol.
Maybe they don't even need to scrap the Gold Cup, it can just stay as a lower-tiered competition and then there's the true Copa America.
It makes so much sense to have concacaf always in copa America. Always having to invite 2 teams who lose all their matches is boring.
To the critics I would admit North American teams should not compete in the libertadores. All of the US and Canada and some of Mexico are in closer proximity to Madrid than to Buenos Aires. A match in Buenos Aires on a Thursday then in Seattle on a Saturday is too much.
@@minabotieso6944 CONCACAF is already split in three regional groupings (North America, Central America and Caribbean), so if I was to design it then I would made an Pan-American tournament each four years and in between smaller regional cups (North America, Central America, Caribbean and South America) in between. Although the North American one would be the most unequal because there would 3 solid teams and 3 very weak teams (Canada, USA, Mexico, Bermuda, Greenland as well as Saint Pierre and Miquelon). The smaller cups could be even in league format and works as qualifiers. Then each region would had a smaller tournament for local fans and big one with the best teams and global appeal.
I see an in between happening. My dream are the merging all togheter. But we will not have it. Political context too big and too complicated to have a merger that works political and economically. Being reasonable, not gonna happen like ever.
Since we will not have it, the fusion in the Copa America with a big qualifier and a America' wide Nations League are the in between of the dreams. You have two good competitions and the confed's split for the WC qualifiers. 2 years joint, 2,5 years split. Clubs keep the same. And everyone happy.
Copa America is miles behind euros they have one good team in Argentina fact now, Brasil football has hugely declined and the other nations aren't strong
@@petesmart1983 Basically every South American team did well and matched up to big European teams in the recent round of friendlies. South American football is undervalued by Europeans who qualify to the world cup by winning a group between Spain and 3 Island nations with less population than an apartment building
I don't see any problem here, the tournament began with three countries, change is constant, it's either this or the tournament continues to decline in popularity
Exactly. The Euro also started with 4 teams and then the number grow
He largely just hates the United States. It’s a constant theme in his videos.
United States fields are suited for American football and not real football. It’s going to cause injuries to players who are used to playing on grass fields
Here Here
As a brazilian, I have absolutely loved this new format
also Brazilian
I also liked, south american teams already have a rivality with Mexico, and with USA and Canada growing, that puts more competition in the tournament than used to be with just 10 teams
Even as someone not from South America, i also like the format of putting US, Mexico and Canada it means more competition
brazil are rubbish
it takes money out of South America. nothing to love about it
as a Canadian I have absolutely loved this new format
being part of this tournament means a lot to North America...
Copa is third largest tournament on Earth (after World Cup and Euro) it is great to see a pan-American tournament finally!
Copa America literally translates to cup of America/America Cup. Both continents of North and South America are literally referred to together as the Americas. There is nothing weird nor wrong about this
they are not different continents North America and South America belong to the same continent AMERICA. People in North America are taught the contrary
@@estefaniacortes9725 Yes, people in North America along with all the other English speakers of the world are taught that the world has 7 continents, not 5.
@@loganleroy8622 In Latin America we are taught a 6 continent model, not 5.
The north and south thing is an american thing idk maybe a canadian thing as well? But def american. Mexicans consider both north and south as a whole as well. The US tries to be special and complicate it.
@@rem10921 It's a difference between English and Spanish speakers. In the UK, they are also taught that there are 7 continents.
I'm really happy with new copa format. Finally 4 groups of 4
It also is great that the top Concacaf teams get an opportunity to play competitive matches against high quality opposition outside of the World Cup.
The gaps in quality in North America have held the continent's development back
@Me-ui1zy I definitely think it's better for viewing there's much more cultural rivalry between South, central and North America than with any teams like Japan, Australia and Qatar. For this tournament it may not be amazing but in 20 years there will be 5 tournaments of competitive rivalries built
Just like the Euro should be, 16 teams.
@@juanperret7044 Yeah having Qatar or Japan in these tournaments makes no sense. And I like that none of the Concacaf teams were given a spot, they all had to earn their place.
@@soundscape26 Tbh, I feel like the Euros have more than proved that expanding the tournament to 24 teams was worth it. Despite what all the English supporters say
I don't see the issue here North and South are collectively known as the Americas, and if you're going to allow teams from outside South America to compete it only makes sense to let them host it as well.
Americans think they're more American than the other Americans that's why?
It's further for South American fans to travel and considerably more expensive, and the match going fans are the ones who actually matter
Screw the South American fans, huh?
This is just the beginning of every single Copa America being held in the USA 😂😂😂
@dansomething7742 There are also Millions of South Americans living in the US that now get to support their nation in person at Copa.
It would be great if they made it official that Copa America is tournament for the whole of America and it's a 16 team tournament. CONMEBOL could still keep the advantage by having all 10 members quality automatically while out of 41 CONCACAF memvers only 6 qualify. CONCACAF can decide how they select those 6 teams, would it be a separate qualifications campaign or would they use either world cup qualifiers or CONCACAF gold cup as the qualifiers for Copa America.
I'm not from South America myself and I don't know what locals think about it, but I know that when I watched Copa America and see Mexico or USA or any other North American countries, it didn't feel weird, but it was so weird seeing Japan and Qatar participating in Copa America.
That's actually how they did it this year. They used the National League to qualify four members (Mexico, Jamaica, USA and Panama) and playoffs to qualify two more (Canada and Costa Rica.)
CONCACAF struck gold using Nations League as their way of qualifying and it should continue as their main qualification should they be invited again. they only allowed nations from league A to participate, meaning only North America's very best. But it also means nations from leagues B and C have a better reason to make it to A and fight to stay there before each edition of Copa America. It also adds more significance to Nations League beyond just the final.
That’s literally how it happened this year. They used the final 4 nation league finalist and then 2 other teams from the Copa America playoffs to make 6 CONCACAF nations.
@@jonenslin3379 great idea. Should be like this every year
CONCACAF wouldn't accept only 6 teams long term. If this tournament became permanent and one of the Gold Cups was replaced (every 4 years instead of 2), ot would mean the Copa would need to expand to 20 or 24 teams.
The 16 team format guarantees:
1. Every CONMEBOL nation plays at least 1 CONCACAF nation
2. No 3rd place teams advance
Much better than the last edition of Copa America consisting 2 groups of 5 where only a whopping amount of 2 teams get eliminated. There is no suspense and 0 prospect of any upsets happening
As an American can confirm there's nothing worse than the US ticket market. Hopefully the US Justice Dept. wins their case against Ticketmaster/Live Nation and the situation can improve
Right, I'm thinking of going to see Brazil at Levi Stadium, but the prices are nuts!
I'm Brazilian, and i think most south americans are happy with this edition of the copa america. We are a small continent, so having more countries participaring is nice, plus Mexico and USA have competitive teams to play against. I honestly think it's a Win/Win situation.
Until you realize you South Americans will never host a Copa America again from here on out every edition will be held in the USA 😂😂😂
Speak for yourself. Most fans I've talked to and football communities I engage in are vehemently opposed, and agree that this is not only harmful to the competition's quality, it also takes power away from South American nations, makes it harder for South American fans to attend games and drives South American football further into the commercial, money-minded model of Mexico and the US. This is beneficial only for CONJAJAF and Dominguez's pockets. I hope this absurd fad of suggesting a merger between CONMEBOL and the north dies out as soon as possible.
@@Dagparwhat about the millions of South Americans living in the US? Do they not count as fans? I have friends from Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador. They're all excited for copa 24
@@RBN406 Then they should make a trip to South America and watch it here. It is far more expensive for a South American to travel to the US than it is for yanks to travel here, and that's without taking into account the massive wage gap between North and South America. Also, if your friends are immigrants from Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, etc. then they are South American. If they are children of immigrants, they are not South Americans.
@@RBN406 Not to mention, the Copa América is a South American competition. Therefore, it is not a right, but rather a privilege for residents of North America to be able to watch it. There are several Italian, Spanish and Welsh immigrants here in South America, but nobody argues for the Eurocup to be played in Brazil. Ever wondered why?
Copa America is basically what it should be. It's part of the American continent, not for South America alone.
There is no such thing as the "American continent"
@@ethandalton6480it’s not a continent. But it is a region. The region of North, Central and South America with the Caribbean is known as the Americas region. Look it up if you don’t believe…
It's a south american tournament and it should stay just like that
@@ethandalton6480 For most countries in the American continent it is one continent. It's subjective anyway.
Didn't know Qatar and Japan were part of the American continent lol
Something else to consider is how badly CONCACAF teams need this tournament from a competitive perspective. The USMNT has won every tournament in CONCACAF since 2021 where we had our top talent (Nations League and Gold Cup were splitting the rosters). As recent friendlies proved, all the CONCACAF teams are way behind South American ones.
Mexico won the last Gold Cup (2023)but your point is still valid
It helps conmebol sporting-wise.
Always having to invite 2 teams who are always destined to lose all their games is not serious but they have little choice when they only have 10 teams. The existing format is not serious.
Argentina and Brazil being the only serious contenders is not serious as well. They are still much better than USA and Mexico but the USA and Mexico are serious contenders ranked above most of conmebol. Mexico has consistently made it far in the competition.
Be honest.....geez .....football was more advanced in the Caribbean than the us...then WC 94 happens...get serious dude!!!!
@@WotlessMengus If you want to speak historically, CONCACAF hasn't won a World Cup knockout game since Costa Rica in 2014. We need to find elite talent to compete against in tournament format. I'm actually hoping that they eventually go to 24 teams at the Copa so there are more spots for the Caribbean teams. I'd love to see T&T and Haiti specifically take a step up, and with their ex-pat communities I could see it happening. And if Jamaica can figure out their internal issues, they could have the most talent in CONCACAF.
US best players skip the gold cup, it tells you a lot.
I think if anything, having so many North American nations in the Copa America makes it more of a Copa America. Like it’s not the Copa America del Sur, so theoretically it’s not an issue if any team from the Americas plays in it
I feel like its not a real Copa America unless there are teams competing from both North and South America.
Com' on, why do you have to represent Nigeria with an image of a village while depicting Europe with a cityscape?
This kind of bias is disappointing and reminiscent of mainstream media. Nigeria has vibrant cities and diverse landscapes that deserve accurate representation.
I thought the same!!! It is actually disgusting. Is this channel British or something?
Probably a fair criticism! The answer is because they're the images that come up first when you use Getty Images, and I work to extremely tight deadlines, but I'll try to do better in future.
@@HITCSevensplease do a video on Korean football, even if it's the negatives.
Not many football fans know much about a country that qualified the most World Cups par Europe and Americas, is only known for rigging the World Cup hosted and how trpphyless Heung Min Son is.
@@HITCSevensyou can do way better. It's not that hard.
lol
Ecuador just had a country-wide blackout this week. Can you imagine if the Copa were being held there?
Why does having CONCACAF teams make it no longer Copa America? America isn’t just South America
Copa America is just a name. The fact is that Copa America is Conmebol International Competition. Concacaf is a different confederation.
@@hectorzambrano9411 so what? Let it be a two confederation tournament. The CONCACAF teams still have to qualify. It wouldn’t be like combining UEFA and CAF. They’re both a part of the Americas and most of the countries are also Latin American. What makes it work is that CONMEBOL only has 10 national teams. CONMEBOL + CONCACAF would still have less nations participating than UEFA.
@@Not_Sal No, thanks
@@hectorzambrano9411 why? Tradition isn’t everything. This creates a better product making it a proper 16 team tournament. It’s not like they’re inviting teams like El Salvador or Haiti to the tournament, the worst CONCACAF teams in it are Panama and Jamaica, and I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re worse than Venezuela and Bolivia. It also creates opportunities to make more money, and tournaments could and should still be held in South American countries too. Football is a business at the end of the day whether you’d like to admit you it or not, and CONMEBOL and several South American countries have had their financial issues in recent years. This is better for business and better for football in the long run.
@@hectorzambrano9411why
HOUSTON TEXAS MENTIONED WTF IS NO ROAD CONSTRUCTION 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
Road construction is so common up here in Houston, we're kinda used to it by now.
I don't know what you're bitching about. Conmebol decided to make a cup together with CONCACAF, which makes sense. There aren't too many teams in South America. Expanded format includes a lot more teams, hence a lot more viewership, and a lot more money.
Also the concacaf teams are decent. USA and Mexico are like mid-level CONMEBOL teams. And everyone agrees Bolivia is the worst team at this Copa
As a Mexican, it is really sad that the team prefers dollars thanks to the federation and its managers, as in Mexico the fans do demand results and boo, they prefer to escape to the United States, today there is a rift between the fans and the a team that will hardly be repaired, they don't even have matches with low-profile rivals, despite having excellent stadiums in CDMX, Puebla, Guadalajara and Monterrey, at this point the Mexican team should play the World Cup at home in the United States, It's really very sad
I hate it too and I'm a Mexican who lives in the USA.
Soccer United Marketing (controls Mexico national team in the USA) puts El tri as their cash cow for their company which has members in the US Soccer Federation. So USSF and SUM basically uses Mexico to get cash from us. And with every Mexican hatred of leagues cup because SUM and MLS uses Mexican clubs to get money too. Doesn't help that US government has concacaf by the balls and giving everything to US Soccer like changing international qualifications, champions League changes to help MLS clubs with their stupid schedule, and taking the option for Liga MX clubs to play libertadores because USA got mad that we took libertadores and suramérica more seriously than facing MLS clubs.
Don't worry... US soccer fans are opening their eyes now cause MLS left US open cup which is a change of power that MLS can basically ignore US Soccer Federation and get away with it.
Most Mexicans living in the United States have no clue how bad the owners are ruining the competition in the Mexican league and letting mediocre rich kids making the 1st teams in big clubs
Just scrap the Golden Cup for a “combined Copa America”
No
@@TrU_homiewhy not?
@@TrU_homie wanna elaborate or naw?
@@SYKim_94 I will do it for him: it's too valuable to most of CONCACAF. For most nations in that region, the Gold Cup is the only major tournament they will every qualify for. It is their world cup. Every region on the planet (Africa, Asia, even little Oceania) has its own exclusive championship that all of its nations can qualify for, even it's smaller ones. With no Gold Cup, CONCACAF won't have this, and that's neither fare nor beneficial to the region. Most of CONCACAF needs the revenue and the experience the Gold Cup provides.
In any case, there's a much better answer here. The Gold Cup is currently held every 2 years. There's no need to cancel it. Just move it to a 4 year cycle, and replace one of the Gold cups with the combined Copa America. Expand that copa america to 20 or so teams to make up for the lost Gold Cup access to CONCACAF (you can do top 8 and invite 2 guests). The Gold Cup can serve as a qualifier for CONCACAF teams to the combined Copa.
That's the actual way forward if this is to continue. It's also probably the only way that has a chance at passing a vote (remember that every concacaf nation has a vote - they'd have to support any merged tournament, and they won't vote for anything that completely screws them).
@@SGT676my reply about to @SYKim_94 explains. Long story short, the Gold Cup is very valuable to most of CONCACAF. They can't afford to completely abolish it. There are other alternatives that don't require full abolition of the Gold Cup.
not sure if I'm ready to hear Alfie say "Copper America" over and over for almost 30 minutes
(it's so funny how Brits often don't realize how they invent "r"s between vowels out of thin air!)
My ears were one "Copper" away from bleeding 😭
Agreed. Only made it through the first two minutes.
😂😂
It’s called a linking r! Very common in a lot of British dialects, but u can also hear it in many accents from Australia, New Zealand, and even a few American English dialects. As funny as it is to hear “copper America,” the linking r can be a very useful tool to make words flow together for some accents. I don’t personally use one in my dialect, but I have no problem with the linking r
@@pjkerrigan20 I have zero issues with the linking r in English (and often I don't even notice it when people use it), but unfortunately I realized it sounds grating to my ears when carelessly applied to foreign words like "Copa América".
I fully understand that's a "me problem", but it's interesting to see I'm not the only one!
Football politics and maintenance of power will prevent Conmebol and Concacaf from merging. No executive's giving up their power for the sake of a healthier charge.
Geography. You forgot geography. People in Central and South America don't realize that for USA and Canada South America is a different continent than North America, pretty much as for Europeans Africa is a different continent than Europe.
There is no chance in hell that the US, Mexico or Canada want to have to try and qualify for the World Cup against South American nations.
@@hectorzambrano9411Latin Americans consider America to all be one continent. The separation between continents is arbitrary and based on cultural differences and utility. For example If conflicts between Asian empires and Europe turned out differently, the border between asia and Europe would be different today. There really is not a hard border, most countries around the “border” can viably be in UEFA or AFC
It’s especially arbitrary in football.
Australia is the AFC, Israel and Turkey are in UEFA, Suriname, French Guiana and Guyana are in concacaf, Martinique and Guadalupe are also concacaf members despite not being recognized by FIFA and being French territories part of the EU. They use the French flag in their matches
@@hectorzambrano9411 Now imagine Asia... there's nothing remotely similar between Saudi Arabia and Japan for instance. Or the Philippines and Uzbekistan.
It would not be healthier. I sure hope that common sense will prevail over the money-minded attitude Dominguez and his cronies are trying to enforce upon South American football. We don't need CONJAJAF
As someone who live in the CONCACAF region I live this format much better. All the bigger countries treat the Gold Cup very passively as best, last Gold Cup all the bigger teams pretty much had the B squads playing. The European Championships best format was when it was 16 teams. Having all 10 South America and 6 CONCACAF members qualify is pretty fair split and still be pretty competitive.
I does hate the way the USA and Mexico does treat the Gold Cup as an after thought.Just look at how Europeans,South Americans,Africans and Asians does treat their individual tournaments with respect and seriousness.While America and Mexico does treat the Gold Cup with disregard and disrespect.
@@marktheshark7588 Right because the importance of the Gold Cup has been replaced with the Concacaf Nations League. It fits in a better spot in the summer window and allows our best players time to recover from their clubs in Europe. When we had players in the MLS, the Gold Cup schedule worked better.
As much as it IS a cash grab let's be honest NO country in south America except Brazil and Argentina (who have recently held the Copa America) could organize the tournament in the short time since Ecuador said they couldn't do it. Even then Argentina have a host of economic problems. As a South American I do think it sucks that a lot of recent tournaments have gone to the US but I genuinely think 16 team format with constant teams from all of america. Also adding Mexico and Canada to the pool of places it could be held isn't terrible. We do give a bit of proportional power to concacaf but I think this format makes the overall cake bigger
There is no R in Copa.
Linking r! It’s a feature of many English dialects
As an Ecuadorian(the country where the copa was meant to be held) born,who lives in New York and next Tuesday I’ll get to see my favorite ever player and the greatest of all time, I’m so happy about this.
Its the Copa AMERICA. NEWSFLASH: North AMERICA is in the Americas. It isn't called the Copa SURAmerica, it's the Copa America.
But it's called "Copa America" not "Copa Sudamerica", I don't see the issue 🤷
True, but it's a CONMEBOL tournament so that points to South America.
Concacaf has the gold cup/copa de oro
Such a dumb take
Doesn't change the fact that it's a CONMEBOL tournament, and the name could be changed to Copa América del Sur if americans suddenly want to get picky about other's tournament naming conventions.
@@RedDevil-lq2ouBut it hadn't changed lol. Conmebol had no issue with hosting the Copa America in U.S. 2016 Copa America was a great Copa America and it made a lot of money.
As a Colombian I really like this new format. The 5 team groups of the 2021 Copa were basically pointless because just one team per group was going home after the group stage, and in 2019 having those random invitees was also weird. I’d rather have other nations that are actually from the America’s be invited to participate rather than random nations like Qatar. Also having 16 nations instead of just 10 or 12 even if 6 of them are not from CONMEBOL is fine by me as long as they still are from the Americas because having 16 teams means that the tournament will follow a much better format. As far as the US being the hosts again, I don’t have a problem with that either. In the 2019 Copa some matches had absolutely dreadful attendance numbers, to the point that it was actually hard to see that our major continental trophy couldn’t pull even 10k fans for some games. South Americans won’t travel for the Copa America regardless of if it’s being held in our continent or in the US, so holding it in the US makes sense because as you said there is a large population of immigrants from every country who earn decent enough money and are able to attend, alongside the minority of people who reside in South America and are willing to travel and pay the costs.
As a Turk living in Scotland, I'd say I love the Copa America more than Euros, since it is the game of passion. I would love to see CONCACAF and CONMEBOL become one, although logistical nightmare certainly plays a role.
Europe has passion calm down. You don't have to let down one group to complement other
In reality the hosting of Copa América has been a messy issue for decades thanks to CONMEBOL's own idiocy, it was always meant to be every 4 years but then CONMEBOL had it every 2 years in the 90s until 2001, then had it once in 2004 but they saw it having the same year as the Euros an issue so they decided it was going to be every 4 years the year between the year after the World Cup and before the Euro(which was how it was originally meant to be in the 70s and 80s) and that was the case with the exception of the 2016 edition(Again, why was that even a thing?), but suddenly in 2019 they decided it had to be the same year as the Euros so they were going to have another in 2020 so the following year after one was already played! That one ended up being played in 2021 because of COVID. In the end the next Copa América is meant to be played in 2028, don't be surprised if that date is changed around again. And the least we talk about CONMEBOL club competitions the better.
All 10 south american football associations have their own fair share of issues particular to them but out of the six confederations CONMEBOL is likely the worst run one out there. The success of south american football is all in spite to CONMEBOL.
Also the use of the name "Copa América" came long before there were any guests, it was first used in 1975, the first Copa América that had teams from outside CONMEBOL playing was in 1993.
You can smell the Eurosnobbery exuding from this video
It’s ironic because his home nation of England is in steep decline. Great Britain has become the sick old man of Europe. The British have developed an inferiority complex 😂
And you can smell that corrupt CONCACAF coping in this reply
I agree
It is called Copa America not Copa South America
As long as it's a CONMEBOL organized competition yeah... it means South American teams.
@@soundscape26well obviously but he’s saying the word America means north and South America
@@amadocarrillo1155 Well yes, if you are going by nomenclature and even the way some people view the whole continent, but for better or worse the Americas were split in 2 different football Federations. If you start putting a lot of North American teams in Copa America you may well merge them.
@@soundscape26it’s meant for the region of the Americas, not the sub federation.
@@soundscape26 they should merge
I think CONMEBOL and CONCACAF coming together to make this something permanent would actually be a good thing. The Copa America could have 10 CONMEBOL teams with 6 CONCACAF teams and the Gold Cup could have 10 CONCACAF teams with 6 CONMEBOL teams and just add USA and Mexico to the host country rotation. It would give CONCACAF the competition it needs to improve and CONMEBOL the American dollars it wants, in addition to keeping both continents/federations competitive with Europe so UEFA doesn't continue leaving everyone behind
You also have to consider that there are, what, 7-10+ million people of direct South American origin in the USA, which is 3 times as many people as Uruguay's population, for example. It's still essentially serving as a home atmosphere for a large number of South Americans.
Roughly 36 million overall including any country south of us. A very large market that will continue to grow in numbers and financially.
CONMEBOL and CONCACAF need to combine, it will improve quality across both continents and make World Cup qualification a lot more exciting
i think this type of working together is a nice compromise for US Soccer, they get the relatively easy path in WC qualifying, but get to play stronger competition outside WC qualifying
CONCACAF should scrap the gold cup and have all the teams fight for the 6 CONCACAF spots for the Copa America
@@Nick_T_90good idea they could do that via their nations league
it wouldn't improve the quality of south american football tho; please, leave conmebol alone
Brazil and Argentina would never vote for a fusion beacuse they would risk lose their for-sure spots in world cup
but i see them working with CONCACAF for a combinated copa america
Bro United States is in America. The only thing weird here Is a man from England complaining about USA being part of copa America. I like your videos but this one is not it at all
It's in North America
@@ethandalton6480America is a continent.
@@ethandalton6480 and where is North America?
Since you wrote your comment in English, the correct way to say it is, "bro, the United States is America." There is no American continent in English. There are two separate continents called North America and South America.
@@loganleroy8622and they both end with what word?
Why not show a picture of a city in Nigeria rather than just a dry farmland but show a nice picture of Austria when mentioning it.
The narrative people in the west have about Africa is appalling
That's why stereotypes are a thing. Doesn't happen with Africa only, Brazil for instance will be more often represented by favelas than by private condos.
When we show the west we only show cities not their farmland and forestry, we also have stereotypes about them.Everybody has stereotypes about everybody. Some europeans think all americans are gun nuts, America thinks the sky is yellow in mexico.
@@victortoba-ogunleye4056that doesn’t justify the picture
Addressed earlier on, but I think this is a fair criticism! The answer is because they're the images that come up first when you use Getty Images, and I work to extremely tight deadlines, but I'll try to do better in future.
@@HITCSevens no no that’s understandable. I’m Nigerian and took offense a little bit but it’s whatever
The Copa America gets a controversial video, the AFCON gets a controversial video, the world cup gets a controversial video. The Euro gets "if you could bring a legend", and prediction videos. Where is the fairness in reporting? I will not try to dictate what HITC Sevens chooses to document but it is not fair reporting.
What about the OFC Nations Cup that’s happening right now? Completely ignored, I’d like to see a video on that and the obscure Pacific Island nations. Yes, the OFC is the weakest confederation, but it deserves the same respect as UEFA, CONMEBOL, AFC, CAF and CONCACAF. To say this guy likes “equality and diversity” not showing much in that respect. AFCON got a video on this channel in February and obviously the Euros now, so why not the OFC Nations Cup? New Zealand deserves recognition too.
He's not a reporter. That's like expecting The Daily Show to be fair and balanced when it's actually a comedy show, even though it does a lot better news reporting than most. Aditionally, what controversies are there in European international football? He covers a lot of club related controversie sin Europe, but internationally Europe is very settled and stable in their governance and structure.
It’s true and fair. The euros is just simply not as controversial as the copa America and AFCON. Germany is not in crisis right now. You are arguing for a neutrality bias which is incorrect
Are you suggesting that there's some Euros controversy that he should have made a video on but hasn't? Because if you aren't, then how can you say it's "unfair"? You can't report on a controversy that's not there. It's not his fault that AFCON and the Copa America have been hit by off-field controversies in recent years, and it's not like he made the videos about those controversies out of disdain for the tournaments. He clearly has a great deal of respect for them, hates what's being done to them, and feels the need to speak out about them, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he would do the same if the Euros were hit with some controversy.
@@F1Krazythey're not suggesting that there's a controversy. Just pointing out the bias in the way stories are covered. Completely fair statement.
Nigeria hosting the Euro made me laugh out loud 😂 thanks for mentioning us though 🇳🇬🇳🇬
I think this topic is more nuanced than the video covered. But it is nice to see a video about Copa America. So, thanks for it!
As a Brazilian, it's not that common of a complaint US hosting the Copa America. It will be if the rotation stops, and some people are saying that the 2024 Copa America will be in the US as well. That's more concerning for me, at least.
As for the number of participants, a 16-team cup is viewed as a way better tournament than a 10 or 12 one. And for the best ones to be invited, culturally and practically, are the ones from Concacaf. We even sometimes wonder about the Mexican teams to come back to Libertadores as well.
Also, here in Brazil and in other countries, we don't call our continent "South America". It's "America," including the North and the South. And, besides the memes between Mexico and Argentina, we see many countries in the North as our brothers and sisters. We share a culture and a heritage. We see the same series, telenovelas, listen to the same music (Brazil, not always), and eat some of the same foods. We also have rivalries with countries from the North, with Mexico and Argentina as a big example of it.
So, it's still a little sad to see Copa America far from the South. But, if that's something to happen from time to time, with a 16-team tournament, that's not that big of a deal, I think.
Besides the México Memes my Clásico is Brazil and will always be Brazil, there is no rivalry with México. That´s México media conbined with Messi hate and internet fans caos not really a fútbol rivalry.
Well, contrary to the Euro, Afcon or the Asian Cup, the Copa America was stuck with the same 10 teams without any chance for an expansion. We're living in an era of more, more, more so them wishing for a bigger tournament doesn't come as much of a surprise.
Also, Ecuador was on the brink of a civil war early this year.
With only ten members, I think it helped explaining why CONMEBOL needs more members. For the first time, I see the possibility of merging North and South America.
It has nothing to do with wanting "more," it's just basic math, best tournaments have participation in multiples of 4, with 16 being ideal for continental & 32 global competition since exactly half of all teams are eliminated with each stage from the group onwards. If they added qualifying to whittle it down from 10 to 8 it'd have the same issue the 2021 CA had where they played 20 games to eliminate only 20% of teams, now it's 24 games to eliminate 50% of teams
@@BC-th3mx Yeah the only issue is that CONCACAF is really thin after USA/Mexico. Right now Canada is decent, Costa Rica used to be decent. So the bottom 3 of CONCACAF usually contribute nothing, but at the same time look how bad Bolivia are. It's worth a few bad teams to get to a 16 team format.
Listen bro... I love u and your content, but this right here is a bad perespective on the look of the copa america. In ancient times as is (or what feels ancient at this point) people used to see north, central (yeah cuz people just lump it in with north america), and south america as its own single continent (america). It was worldwide knowledge it was africa, america, asia, australia(yes australia was its own thing as well), and europe. This tournament brings the tournament back to its roots of how america as a whole should be viewed and is an effort to heavily advance football (or soccer if you are from the americas speaking english). Concacaf needs their countries to face higher competition to then perform better in the world cup, which in turn would have millions more in what u see as north america, tune in and/or fall in love with the sport. Conmebol has had a dying tournament for some time now because south america lacks more countries (obviously because south america wasn't supposed to be split into its own thing in the first place). The euros with their highly modern fields and vast countries to see go at it obv had copa beat. There is also the snobby "sophiticated" aesthetic that revolves around european soccer, that simply isn't carried around copa. For the most part in history, south america simply dazzled u with its "street soccer" as best emphasized by edu vargas sending iker casillas flying in the 2014 world cup, and as far as usa and canada stood, they didn't even care about it. You're not getting entertaining antics like luis suarez biting somebody, marcelo bielsa's squads 1v1 marking like it's basketball, or the tricks/skill moves of creative play in the euros. Set pieces, spaced out robotic formations, track athletes doing cardio with little to no technical ability is common, and crosses often gets boring.
Copa America could be huge if they combined both confederations like this much more often. You get more teams, the big south american giants, and the big money from North America.
As an American, it’s awesome to have good games. As an American, it sucks that our ticketing processes are so horrible.
As a football fan I think it sucks that America is buying up all of football.
its still a copa america its in america
Great video! Adding to the economic crisis in Ecuador there is a cartel war going on with the state which boiled over at the start of the year when cartel members stormed a tv station in a live broadcast and held them hostage and two of the most powerful drug kingpins in the country fled captivity. Since then the president Daniel Noboa has declared an internal armed conflict against the cartels. I highly doubt the Copa América would have gone ahead in Ecuador under these circumstances.
2:45 Its really nothing like Afcon being hosted in Austria lmao. The Latin American diaspora in the USA is insanely huge.
The US can host big tournaments and a reminder that the record game attendance for a World Cup is the US in 1994, extra impressive because they had 12 less games than all the world cups since. More bums on seats than Germany, France, Japan, even Brazil could manage with 12 extra games.
they have the facilities and population to host big events like this.
Plus Its good for the best of concacaf to perform on a big stage other than the World Cup.
(I havent finished the video yet so maybe he agrees with me)
Ah yeah he basically did agree.
At 22:43 he says only 37.5% of teams. 10/16 isn't 37.5%, its 62.5%
"Its really nothing like Afcon being hosted in Austria lmao. The Latin American diaspora in the USA is insanely huge". you do know that the African diaspora in Europe is also insanely huge right? that doesnt give France the right to host the African Nations Cup though. but basically your argument is that because the US is the bigger than the other countries, that gives them the right to host whatever tournaments they want? that's the most american argument I've ever heard ahahah I love it! oh and I cant wait to see the next Asian Cup of Nations being hosted in San Francisco because of their "insanely huge" asian diaspora ;)
@@jofa9495you don’t make any sense
I think the main difference to us is that in Spanish, the word América means "the Americas" as a whole, (This is also where that whole "you can't call yourselves Americans" feud with Americans comes from) it's actually the "the Americas Cup" so it doesn't really feel weird at all that it's done in the US, it feels weird that Concacaf is not included, in fact, we've tried to invite all of the Concacaf to join officially, but they've always refused, stating that the level of the teams involved clearly favors South America.
Sadly, Freddy Adu never got to played at Copa America.
Much Adu about nothing
As a Colombian living in the US, I was initially excited to have the copa América held here again. Then I saw the prices of some of the tickets were going for, and I quickly changed my mind. It would way cheaper to travel to Ecuador and attend a Copa América game there, if they would've hosted, than to attend the final in Miami even though I already live here
As a peruvian fan, I think the Copa America in the USA was kind of a necesary step. The standard for football infrastructure has increased way past what any south american country but Brazil can offer. I want to see the Copa America here but we need time to recover and build infraestructure, Ecuador or Peru were'nt gonna cut it to be honest. We should maybe consider joint hosts in south america to distribute the infrastructure load between two or more countries. And about the prices, plane tickets from south america to USA are usually as expensive if not cheaper than plane tickets between south american countries, due to low demand.
Nah. A decent amount of people have been thinking CONMEBOL and CONCACAF should just merge. To make a bigger and more competitive confederation.
It’s called Copa America, not Copa South America. That’s like the Euros being held in Germany. Yeah, they are a part of Europe…
Or why does England & Scotland still play in the Euros? Isn't the UK not a part of Europe any more! 😂
@@NXRCISSIST Of course England and Scotland are part of Europe. The EU is an economic area not a geographical one
It wasn't meant to include North and Central America in its inception, so the actual meaning of the word has little to no value when compared to football tradition and support in South America. Keep your Gold Cup, we don't need CONJAJAF to keep our tournament competitive
@@Dagpar Tell me you don't watch the past Copa America without telling me that you don't watch the past Copa America...
@@lucaspereiramartins1485it's shit compared to the Euros
Truth is we South Americans know a tournament composed by just 10/12 teams isn't as amazing as a regular ol' 16 team tournament. And to be honest, we aren't exactly against extending the invitiation to the best teams in concacaf. We'd love to host a 24 nations tournament like the Euro but it's impossible
10 Comnebol countries plus....
11. Panama, 12. Costa Rica, 13. Nicaragua, 14. El Salvador, 15. Honduras, 16. Guatemala, 17. Mexico, 18. USA, 19. Canada, 20. Dominican Republic, 21. Haiti, 22. Cuba, 23. Jamaica.
And #24 can be a final slot awarded to the winners of a tournament between: Trinidad & Tobago, Belize, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Guadaloupe, Martinique, Barbados, Curacao, Guyana, etc.
This would definitely spur development in CONCACAF countries, especially the Caribbean and Central America. All of a sudden you'd see a lot more football stars opting to play for their birth/parentage countries. The combined population of Central America and the Caribbean is 100 million people. That's a lot of potential talent waiting to be discovered and developed.
As an American, I am also constantly priced out of tickets too, this stuff is ridiculous.
Join the American Outlaws
Thanks Alfie, learned a lot about the Copper America today!
The cultural and educational facts that many people ignore is that in the Anglo-Saxon world’s view, there are three Americas, North America, Central America (including the Caribbean) and South America; whereas in the Spanish speaking world also known as Latin America, there’s only one continent called AMERICA and it’s view as one whole region. So, having Canada, the United States and Mexico as well as Central American nations competing in the COPA AMERICA tournament makes a lot of sense. 👍
As someone from concacaf I’m actually a huge fan of those collaborations and I think it’ll help our football in near future
It would make so much sense for the Copa America and Concacaf Gold Cup to merge and create one Pan-American championship.
No
Just do what CONMEBOL does and invite other nations to the Gold Cup. 2025 is already going to be a mini world cup.
@@hectorzambrano9411lmaoo you keep saying the same “it will lower the qualify of south american football” bs on every comment 🤣 we get it that conmebol is way better than concacaf but you don’t have to be that stupidly arrogant. you still have the qualifiers bruh, it’s not like you’d be playing belize and puerto rico in the copa america. facts is that countries like paraguay and peru have declined, with chile it’s still unsure what their future talent holds, colombia was good then bad then good again, that has nothing to with concacaf. venezuela and ecuador improving would’ve happened even if concacaf nations were in the last copa america. south american football wouldn’t decline just because the best concacaf teams would qualify for the copa america, don’t be dramatic. most of them always put a fight and the top 6 are definitely all better than mf bolivia🤣
@@franze4 Get better at football instead of paying your way into other confederations' more prestigious competitions.
@@franze4bro its crazy that many are against this, its like they wanna gatekeep other nations from playing arg, brazil, like wtf
Concacaf meaning Canada, Mexico and USA, the six Central American countries and the rest of Conmebol should just make one conferation
I'm Chilean and to be honest the Copa America has always been a whatever detailswise. The history of the tournament is full of random bullshit, which makes you naturalizing any unusual thing.
You said you would feel weird if 40% of the euros team aren't from Europe, but I wouldnt feel weird if the Copa America has several non Conmebol countries and even lacks a few Conmebol teams just because this happens from time to time
It's not news if a dog bites a man but it's news if a man bites a dog sort of deal.
you need to talk about the welsh premier league. despite the recent success of the welsh national team, the league is seriously ignored, and only has 1 proffesional team (that happens to be in england ffs)
Which squad is the pro-team? Connah's?
The New Saints
@@lougiacobbi725 no the new saints, Connah's quay used to be pro but not anymore
Cymru is great fun in Football Manager. The lack of big money is a feature, not a bug.
@@ThreeRunHomer which teams have you used from the league before?
You ain't lying about the ticket prices. I have season tickets for Charlotte FC and was thinking about buying tickets for one of the Charlotte games (semi-final, 3rd place). I love my seats for Charlotte FC and was going to purchase the same for Copa America. The price difference was 400%. I'll be watching the games on TV.
Every country in the Americas that has made it to the Copa previously on merit, or is ranked by FIFA at least in the top 25, should be eligible, to host assuming they have the infrastructure and are safe enough to properly host. The US hosting Copa America is entirely appropriate. The only argument against it is that other countries should have been given further consideration, since the US has hosted 2 of the last 3. It's not inappropriate like Qatar hosting the World Cup.
"It's like as if Nigeria were at the Euros" - that's such an incredibly false equivalence that it genuinely stains the video
just saying, north america and south america should be playing one continental competition
To be fair - I'd be all for Conmebol and Concacaf just flat out merging. I think it'd be excellent
They should stop inviting teams from Asia and Europe. They should stick to the format of keeping the 10 nations of South America and the rest from the North and Central America depending on their performance from concacaf gild cup and concacaf nations league
Hi Alfie, first of all amazing work, love your videos so much! Just to clarify, as a former Chilean resident I can say with some confidence that the concept of North/South America doesn't really exist in South America. The whole landmass is seen as just "América". In fact the colloquial term for citizens of the USA is "norteamericanos" a term which is even used in Mexico despite Europeans understanding Mexico itself as being in the continent of North America. So yeah, anyway, basically in their view America is a single continent.
as a peruvian this video was so hard to watch holy shit. why isn’t there a single european channel who knows jack shit about conmebol, not even the littlest of knowledge😒
I wasn't expecting much once he talked about Nigeria and showed some random village photo instead of a photo of a city or stadium like everywhere else he mentioned. Said a lot about how much time he puts into understanding anything outside of Europe lol
Believe me, American citizens have a problem with the price gouging in every aspect of our entertainment industry. It's our politicians who are bought out by these corporations and don't give a crap. Although let's hope this antitrust suit against Ticketmaster can change some things.
Wait a minute!
A HITC Sevens video that is under half an hour???
What have you done to Alfie?!
It’s Copa America, not Copa Sudamerica. It is nothing like having African or Asian teams in the Euros. Most people understand that there’s probably gonna be a merger or in the future, a proper Copa between both confederations.
Also what you said about the Copa America being held every 4 years is simply untrue. It was held every for years only twice from 2007 to 2011 to 2015. Before that it was sporadically and usually every 2 or 3 years.
Also no one who travels to the Copa America games even thinks about any political situations going on in the host nation unless the situation is absolutely dire. If it’s not a situation like Haiti then it’s perfectly fine to host it.
In this comment section you can tell there’s a lot of Europeans who don’t know what they’re talking about.
They just have a different world perspective. At the end of the day, Sputh America is consider a different continent than Northern America by most people in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a matter of History, geography, and education @@Not_Sal
In Latin America, we consider north and south america the same continent. It's not the same as Africa hosting the EUROs. Africa is far more distinct to europe. While, culturally, the status of north america and south america not being one continent actually varies. More importantly, mexicans and americans are still in the Americas, so it's not that big of a deal to me.
Huge disclaimer from an actual latino- we don’t care about north and south america. it’s just America🤷♂️
Latin Americans refer to America as one continent. Anglos refer to it as North and South
Hey alfie, could you please start uploading it as a podcast also? Your content is perfect as an audio only template and mostly the long form content would be great while having a walk
I typically use Alfie's videos as podcasts, stick it on and do some house work or go for a walk/cycle
Love your videos, but comparing the cops america in the us and the euros in Nigeria is an awful take.
If the Copa America had always included all the Americas, not just South, and they wanted to split the tournament in North and South I reckon the same people who are getting angry now would've gotten angry in that scenario as well
...but I came here for the history of Bronze Age Ecuador
Why is it so hard to comprehend north and south America are part of the AMERICAS… hence Copa America
Almost nobody in the Americas has a problem with this new format...it seems to be Europeans that don't like it lmao
"England favorite for the Euros" he said
Someone should tell the England players... maybe they'd actually try to score some goals.
England have been considering themselves favorites for all 40 years I've followed the sport. In those 40 years they've never won a single tournament. So England not being "favorites" while losing would be a new thing.
@@moloko5 My dad's followed football for over 40 years too, and he's only ever seen them make 2 SFs not in England - 1990 Italia & 2018 Russia, never in the Euros, out of over 20 tournaments
The question is ... how can we eliminate greed in humans ...
What is weird? Is just the Copa America hosted by the United States of AMERICA.
Also you didn't mention the next World Cup is gonna be in Canada, Mexico and the USA, and that's one of the reasons, if not the main reason, for which this country is organizing it, because they need high intense football matches (with Conmebol and their stronger national teams and also they have the world champion btw) to be prepared for the WC and not be left in shame in their own WC.
i mean do you know how populated the united states is by south americans? its really a unique chance for most of them to see their home countries compete at this tournament
He did mention that in a video as a bad thing with great supporting evidence so it’s just overall bad and he is correct.
Also it's not like anybody else has to travel to watch their national teams play in international tournaments....wait
There's also a lot of South Americans in ... South America
I can’t believe people from Georgia have to travel all the way to Germany!
I am all for CONMEBOL and CONCACAF merging as much as possible. It will be great for the football quality of both continents. However, any deal has to have protections to avoid the USA swallowing up everything (money and hosting rights).
Merging the Gold Cup and Copa America makes much sense; it is OK if its always all 10 CONMEBOL teams plus 6 CONCACAF. And I'd go as far as merging the Libertadores and CONCACAF Champions as well.
Bro it’s called the copa AMERICA not the copa SUDAMERICANA it’s not that deep that the us host again
My guy really put the Bolivian team when he was talking bout mexico
I don't understand how ppl can be mad that the Copa America now includes North America, it just makes the tournament more exciting, inclusive, competitive, lucrative, and entertaining
I paid $260 for a semi final ticket in Charlotte. Level 5, row 1. How much is a ticket to the Euro semi final?